"For a film so boastful about preserving history, it seems all too content to commercialise its own story."

I meant to post this forever ago, but I kept putting it off (and off, and off...and off.) Back in September, Neil went to go shoot portraits at a local re-enactment event. He enlisted my help with the lighting set up, and so I could watch the gear as he hunted for people to photograph. Of course I didn't want to just sit around, so I took my instant camera and decided to shoot the same people on it, giving them one copy and taking one for myself. They all seemed to really appreciate getting something tangible immediately after the shoot, instead of waiting to see if they made the online gallery or not. It was awesome. I love hanging out at bigger assignments like this and coming away with something a little different. Having another shooter covering the bases is freeing and just lets me have fun. Here's some of the instant portraits.

 And below is the page design I laid out on deadline. That in and of itself was quite a fun challenge, and I'm pretty happy with the final product.

 

Here is a link to Neil's gallery from the day, and here is his edit for his EOY portfolio.

"[...] Content to operate at an almost infuriating level of consistent quirkiness..."

The other day I went to a high school talent show, and I just wasn't feeling it. The lights were off backstage, nothing was happening in the hallways. I got it into my head that there was NO good picture to be made (even though there always is, you just have to look.) It was an optional assignment, so there was no real pressure, but I hate walking away with nothing. So when Neil dared me to make a good picture, I knew I had to come away with something. I saw this girl come and stage, and bam, light bulb. I took a couple with the painting, but then I went in for the picture I knew I wanted -- which is the one Neil ended up running on A1. It's a little thing, but it's always sweet to see the unexpected photo run.

And since we're on the topic of weird portraits, here's one I shot a couple days later of my good friend Jake May. Nothing better than hanging out making pictures and having fun. Here he is, in all his bearded glory.

"A mostly-forgettable pantomime of blood, gore and sculpted abs."

I shot a bodybuilding competition. It was very orange. Pretty interesting day, to say the least. I haven't shot (people) with a flash in a while, so it was fun to mess around with. Here's a couple from the day, and the page design we ran.

"The film is willing. But its spirit is weak."

 Thought I'd start trying something new with my blog posts. Instead of just posting pictures and occasionally blabbing on about this or that, I'm going to occasionally post contact sheets, sort of TID-style, so you can see the visual progression of the picture. And also see how sometimes I shoot way too much, and other times I get a frame I like early on. Here's the first two, nothing groundbreaking, just something to introduce the idea. Locker room shots of people staring. We'll see if the idea works out.

These thumbnails reproduced really weird and washed out. I don't know why.

What doesn't really show in these captions is the decision to go from f/2.8, to f/4, to f/8.